Wildlife of the arctic circle

Where is the arctic circle?

The Arctic Circle is the latitude that’s about 66.5° north of the Equator, including the Arctic Ocean and the northernmost areas of Alaska, Canada, Russia, Finland, Sweden, Norway and Greenland. 

Which animals live in the arctic circle?

While Santa Claus and his toy-making elves may or may not be found in the region, caribou, also known as reindeer, definitely live there. They’re not the only mammals who live in the arctic.  Because there is no place that is frost-free, no permanent residents of the region can hibernate. They must remain active all winter. Let’s meet six mammals found in the arctic.

• Polar bears. These huge critters are anything but cuddly in real life. Weighing 600-1200 pounds and measuring 8-10 feet tall, male polar bears are huge and the females are not much smaller at 400-700 pounds. They are only found in arctic nations, Canada, Greenland, Norway, Russia and the United States (Alaska). 

• Arctic wolves. These wolves have white coats all year and unlike other wolf species, they have never been widely hunted by humans and have been observed to be unafraid of people. Their role in the arctic ecosystem is to hunt caribou, muskox and arctic hare. They are found in North America and Greenland.

• Arctic foxes. The northern populations of foxes have white coats in the winter but some foxes have blue coats. They hunt and eat smaller animals like rodents and birds. They are born in dens and litters can have up to 15 pups.

• Ermines. Reddish brown and white in the summer and all white in winter, these weasels live all across Alaska and in many different ecosystems, including in the arctic tundra. They are carnivores, primarily eating small mammals.

• Arctic hares. These speedy critters can move at 40 miles per hour. They eat berries, leaves and other parts of plants and in the winter, they also each lichen and moss. They have white coats in the winter to blend in with the arctic snow and blue-gray coats in the spring.

• Northern Collared Lemmings. Another member of the white winter coat club, these lemmings are white in the winter and gray or reddish brown in the summer. They eat plants including cottongrass and bearberry, preferring tundra with a lot of plant cover. They are hunted by foxes, wolves and polar bears.

What birds live in the arctic circle?

Millions of birds migrate to the arctic during the summer. There are a few species of birds that live there all year around. Let’s meet three of them.

• Ptarmigan, relatives of grouse, live in the tundra. They eat plants and insects. In the spring, males defend their territory with “aerial chases and a variety of gargling, croaking, and screaming noises.” When the snow melts, females nest on the ground, laying up to 10 eggs. After hatching in June and July, the baby ptarmigans can fly within 10 weeks. They travel in flocks through the fall and winter. 

• Gyrfalcons are the largest species of falcon in the world and hunt the ptarmigans as well as other birds and small mammals. A family of gyrfalcons eats the equivalent of 2-3 ptarmigans a day during breeding season! 

• Snowy owls are the heaviest owls in North America. They prey on lemmings (eating more than 1,000 lemmings a year!) and like the gyrfalcons, they also hunt  ptarmigans. The owls can migrate in the winter and may be seen in the northern U.S. and Canada but not all of them fly south. These owls actually hunt during the day, which is important since in the summer, there is light nearly all day.

Which plants grow in the arctic circle?

The area known as the tundra is north of the timberline, which is the point at which there are no trees. Plants north of the timberline are shorter than the same species is in the south. The tundra is anything but barren with bloom of flowers in July.

Among the flowers blooming in the tundra are the blue-spiked lupine (Lupinus arcticus), the arctic poppy and the saxifrage.

And there are more than 500 species of lichen, which are an important source of food for the foraging caribou.